SA gets terrorism wake-up

THE arrest of South African brothers Brandon-Lee and Tony-Lee Thulsie on terror charges on the weekend, shows there may have been something after all in those warnings from the American and British governments on possible terror attacks in South Africa last month.

The Thulsie twins are accused of plotting to attack American and Jewish interests with explosives in Johannesburg.

Brandon-Lee and Tony-Lee are also known as Yaqeen and Salahuddin ibn Hernani respectively.

Among the pictures posted on Yaqeen’s Facebook page is one of the word Islam, where the letter “a” is substituted with the silhouette of a man waving the black and white flag which has become synonymous with the Islamic State.

The Thulsie siblings allegedly had attempted to leave the country on two occasions to join Isis in Syria.

At the time of the American and British warnings against travelling to South Africa because of the probability of an attack in shopping centres during Ramadan, the South African government said it was all just a lot of American hype and these warnings should not be taken seriously.

So is it just coincidence what the Thulsie brothers had planned? Let’s give a bit of credit to US and British intelligence services, which are far more proactive than our own intelligence service is accustomed to.

South Africa has thus far been spared from the horrible and bloody terror attacks which have taken place in other African countries like Kenya and Nigeria, but there have long been concerns about militant Islamic infiltration and activity in South Africa.

These concerns were brought into prominence by the revelation that the so-called “White Widow”, Samantha Louise Lewthwaite, a British woman who is one of the Western world’s most wanted terrorism suspects, had used a fraudulently obtained South African passport.

Lewthwaite, who is a fugitive from justice in Kenya, where she was wanted on charges of possession of explosives and conspiracy to commit a felony, entered South Africa in July 2008 and travelled in and out of the country on several occasions.

This only came to light years later.

Our own state security cluster is more concerned with defending Nklandla expenses and accusing unknown foreign agents of wanting to overthrow the government without a shred of evidence to back this up.

The Thulsie twins look like the kind of cannon fodder Isis and other Islamic terror groups thrive on – young, gullible, recent converts indoctrinated in hate and violence.

Let us hope our state security apparatus receives this as a wake-up call. The Hawks have said the Thulsies may be part of a terrorist cell in this country.